More than 60,000 white South Africans have expressed interest in moving to the United States following President Donald Trump’s offer to resettle people from the country’s Afrikaner community.
The South African Chamber of Commerce in the USA (SACCUSA) said its website received tens of thousands of registrations from those seeking more information.
The group explained that most of those who expressed interest in migrating were between 25 and 45 years old and had two to three dependents.
According to the organization’s president, Neil Diamond on Wednesday, of the 67,042 people who registered on Saccusa’s website, most possessed Afrikaner or English names.
Tensions between South Africa and the US spiked in January, when South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law a bill allowing the state to seize land without compensation, provided it was in the “public interest”.
Ramaphosa’s move followed years of calls for land reform, with activists and politicians seeking to redistribute farmland from the white minority.
Simultaneously, South Africa’s white minority possesses the vast majority of privately held land and wealth in the country, more than 30 years since the racist system of apartheid ended.
Aside from that, some white South Africans say they are discriminated against, a claim that has caught the attention of right-wing groups in the US.
In response to this law, Trump signed the executive order offering refugee status to Afrikaner descendants of mainly Dutch settlers who arrived in the 17th Century.
In March, Trump extended the invitation to all farmers in South Africa, which he called “a bad place to be right now” and cut aid to the country.
Ramaphosa responded to Trump’s criticisms by saying South Africa has not seized any land and that the new bill ensures “public access to land in an equitable and just manner as guided by the constitution”.
Regardless, the spat between the two countries has worsened. Last week the US expelled South Africa’s ambassador to Washington, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio describing him as a “race-baiting politician”.
